Reported in the News Letter during this week in 1916

Here are some of the stories reported in the News Letter 100 years ago

A Dublin Sensation

Arms and Ammunition removed

January 24

A wholesale raid was carried out on Saturday [January 22] by the Dublin police and detective force on the residences of a large number of people who, it is stated, had been suspected for some time of acting in contravention of the provisions of the Defence of the Realm Act.

The raids were a complete surprise, and though the persons concerned expostulated, no resistance was offered and no arrests were made.

The houses raided were in different parts of the city, and the police, after making a careful search, removed from them arms, ammunition and alleged seditious literature. The articles seized were conveyed to the Castle, where they were impounded.

The only name mentioned in the reports of the affair is that of the Countess Markievicz, from whose residence in Rathmines the police are stated to have removed a printing press, with type and paper. This lady, whose husband left Dublin at the outbreak of war to join his regiment in the Russian army, has been a prominent figure in a number of movements, philanthropic and otherwise, which have gained for their supporters a measure of notoriety. One of them was the running of a free kitchen for the wives and children of the strikers during James Larkin’s reign of terror.

The raid has caused a sensation in Dublin, and is taken to mean that the authorities are prepared to adopt the very strongest of measures to check the spread of sedition. If that be the case their actions will be warmly welcomed by the loyal section of the populace, who view with uneasiness the apparently unchecked activities of sedition mongers and pro-Germans.

Two German Air Raids

Attack on the Kentish Coast

January 24

The War Office announces that a hostile aeroplane dropped nine bombs on the East Coast of Kent at one o’clock yesterday morning. Some damage was caused to property, and one civilian was killed, while six persons were slightly injured.

Two hostile aeroplanes made a second attack on the same locality yesterday afternoon, but coming under heavy fire disappeared, pursued by our machines. No damage and no casualties are reported.

Gallipoli Withdrawal

A Brilliant Achievement

January 24

The last British and French troops were withdrawn from the Peninsula early on the morning of January 9th.

After eight-and-a-half months of stubborn fighting, working and enduring, the Dardanelles campaign has been abandoned, and all the bravery and suffering, all the toil and thought which it cost, have gone for nothing – at any rate that is the taunt which our enemies will gleefully hurl at us.

Viewed from another standpoint – that of the imperishable record of duty and bravery done under the most disheartening circumstances, of hardships cheerfully borne, and sacrifices rendered with happy confidence in the end we have something to show.

But precious as these things are, they will hardly console the present generation for the many thousands of gallant lives that have been lost on the Peninsula.

What will cheer the nation is to know that the army was removed practically without loss, and that the discipline and courage of the troops and efficiency and skill of the Staff were never more conspicuously displayed than at the moment when, in obedience to the command from home, failure had to be accepted, and the army shipped away under the enemy’s guns.

A Gifted Composer

Mr Hamilton Harty’s ‘Irish’ Symphony

January 26

Mr Hamilton Harty, the gifted son of Mr William Harty, of Hillsborough, continues to add to his laurels as a musical composer, and at the present time his works enjoy a great vogue.

Referring to his “Irish” symphony, which was played by the Leeds Symphony Orchestra in the Leeds Town Hall on Saturday [January 22], the “Yorkshire Observer” says: “Mr Harty’s work is full of features and yet thoroughly compacted, not only beautiful in its ideas, but put together with notable skill.”

Mr Harty has won distinction as a conductor, as well as by his creative work, and it will be recalled that three or four years ago he wielded the baton at an orchestral concert in the Ulster Hall, when his wife, Madame Agnes Nicholls, appeared as the vocalist of the occasion.

Well-To-Do Hermit’s Fate

“Death from Starvation Through Self-Neglect”

January 26

A verdict of “death from starvation through self neglect” was returned by a coroner’s jury at Rochester last night in the case of Mrs Mary Jane Forshaw, aged 66, a property owner.

She was a widow who lived alone, and cut herself off from the rest of the world. Her neighbours, alarmed at hearing nothing of the deceased, broke into the house by way of the cellar, and found her dead on the floor. There were meat and vegetables in an advanced stage of decomposition, and some empty beer and whisky bottles in the house, but no fresh food. Three cats in the house were reduced to skeletons through starvation.

Death of Mr A L

Horner KC MP

January 27

We have to announce with deep regret that Mr A L Horner, KC, MP for South Tyrone, died at Crewe at 5.30 yesterday evening.

The honourable member travelled to London early last week to take part in the debate on the Military Service Bill. He caught a chill and decided to return to Ireland, but was obliged to break his journey at Crewe, where he took to his bed, seriously ill. He received the most careful medical attention and nursing but these proved unavailing, and death occurred as stated.

The late Mr Horner was descended from an old Plantation family which settled in County Londonderry, and it was therefore in the natural order of things that on reaching man’s estate he should be found taking a leading part in the campaign which has as its object the maintenance of the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland. Born at Limavady in 1863, he received his early education at Foyle College, Londonderry, an institution which has turned out many brilliant scholars, and subsequently he entered Queen’s College, Belfast, graduating at the Royal University of Ireland.

He parents’ intention was that he should qualify for the Christian ministry, and with that aim in view he studied for some time at the Assembly’s College, Belfast. He ultimately decided on adopting the legal profession, however, and was called to the Irish Bar during the Michaelmas term of 1887.

He had a sound knowledge of the law, and was able to place his facts and arguments clearly and cogently before judge and jury.

Ulster and the War

Belfast Officer’s Death

January 28

It is with feelings of deep regret that we announce the death of Lieutenant Edward Workman, 5th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (Royal South Downe), a member of a well-known and highly-respected Belfast family, who succumbed on Wednesday [January 26] to a serious wound in the head received in a successful attack on the German trenches last week.

Lieutenant Workman, who was serving with the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, was struck with the butt end of a rifle, and the gravity of the injury was considerably accentuated by the development of septic poisoning.

The first intimation that he had been wounded reached Belfast on Saturday last, the official message stating that his condition was dangerous, and his parents, Mr and Mrs Frank Workman, of the Moat, Strandtown, together with his sister, Mrs Lindsay, and brother-in-law, Captain D C Lindsay, 17th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, at once crossed to France. The wounded officer was conveyed to the Duchess of Westminster’s War Hospital at Le Touquet, where everything known to surgical science was done for him, but it was seen from the outset that his condition was practically hopeless. Before the end came he was visited by his father and mother and Captain and Mrs Lindsay.

The deceased officer was the only son of Mr Frank Workman, one of the founders of the famous shipbuilding and engineering firm of Workman, Clark, & Co Ltd. He was born in Belfast 29 years ago, and was educated at Charterhouse and at Cambridge University. He subsequently joined the firm with which his father has been so long identified, and eventually became manager of the south yard and a member of the directorate.